Hi. I know I have been MIA a lot and it seems like I just do apple breeding stuff anymore. That is not the long term plan. I’ve been working hard to save money for a downpayment for 5 or 6 years now. In mean time the clock has been ticking and the apple breeding project and a lot of other stuff is just more or less on hold. I have not planted any apple seeds for two years. That means that other people are growing the best crosses I have ever made before I am. I also have hundreds of seedlings in the ground waiting to be grafted to stock and planted out somewhere. My cactus project is going well and bringing in income. That should grow with time. I want to get back to doing fun stuff and making content about fresh interesting things.
I found a piece of property that I can do just about anything I want to on, which is what I have always been looking for. It has tens of acres of flat ground, decent enough soils, a 1 acre pond, mixed hardwood and conifer forests, a 60 gpm well near the growing area that I would use, two live streams (fish bearing steelhead and salmon spawning tributaries) a couple of funky but very useful structures, good roads throughout and it is over 150 acres with all of the closest neighbors being at least 1/4 mile away. It also comes with a ford tractor that has very low hours, and great attachments. (almost most excited about the tractor lol) The biggest downside is the climate is colder than where I am at by a little bit, even though the elevation is lower. I can work with that using greenhouses where necessary. There is not much else wrong with it. It pretty close to two wilderness areas and a large University of California preserve. There is a lot of potential and resources to do classes on all kinds of stuff, from one day to weeks. I would love to host teachers of various things to do courses and this is definitely that kind of place.
If I can make an offer in the next couple of days and it is accepted, it will be a very good deal and much better than I thought I’d be able to afford. I can’t get a regular bank loan on it and it is cash only. I will have to find about 300k worth of loans. Ideally that would be a private loan at a low interest rate. The more I spend on interest and payments and less I can actually implement any projects I need money for. I also will have to spend more time and energy on money making stuff than random interesting and potentially fruitful experiments.
More later, I’m scrambling to get some financials together in time to take to my credit union and the loan guy I am talking to, whatever they are called (sharks?). I need to secure a loan for what I don’t already have to show the sellers. Again that will be about 300k. If someone out there would consider financing that with a lien on the property of course, hit me up ASAP. Once I submit an offer and it is accepted, I will launch some kind of crowdfunding to reduce the amount I have to borrow as much as possible. All bets are off on how that will go. That and any other smaller private loans will ultimately determine what I have to borrow. Paying on interest rates is nuts when you do the math, so the goal will be to pay off as soon as possible. but then again, there is no point in having the property if I am not using it for experiments and stuff which will also take money for stuff like fencing etc. I will also have to actually court patrons, which I have never really done. I rarely even mention Patreon and you guys have still showed out and helped me get this far in the journey. Thanks for that. I would not be at this juncture without your support so far.
Again more later. If this doesn’t work out, I may very well settle for something smaller, with less diverse potential and just do what I can there. This is too good to pass on though and I think it is doable pending the financing. I’m fired up to get on there and start working and playing. Hope to see some of you there someday for axe camp or some such. If not, it’s all good and something will work out.
